Windsor Libraries Exit Self Publishing Business

Windsor Public Library CEO Kitty Pope holding a concept drawing of the proposed John Muir Public Library (Photo taken by AM800's Rob Hindi)

The self-publishing service at Windsor Public Library is no more.

At it's most recent board meeting, the library board chose not to renew the contract of the machine used for the service.

It had proven popular with more than 20,000 volumes published over the past five years.

WPL CEO Kitty Pope says technology has moved on during those five years and there are other options.

"Whether you're writing a cookbook of your grandma's recipes, to a family history or you're writing a treatise on the history of Windsor, we would show you the best site to use to be able to create the document and then there's two or three online resources you could use to actually publish the document."

She says the machinery they've been leasing is now outdated.

"Prior to this we had, it was actually like a huge photocopier. We would actually print the documents here in Windsor, but there's better, cheaper, quicker resources now online."

Pope says the self published books done at the library covered a wide variety of topics.

"We had one wonderful senior who every year wrote a book about animals for her grandchildren and had it published. To university professors who wanted classroom resources available for their students."

Pope says the lease has cost anywhere from $32,000 to $45,000 a year over the five years and barely broke even financially.

She adds the library has a lot of the self-published books produced there and hopes the people using the online version will provide them copies as well.